This entry was posted on Could 8, 2024 by Charlotte Bell.
Some time again, I posted a weblog that sketched out a really fundamental define of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. After all, we are able to’t probably seize the essence of the sutras in a single weblog put up, or perhaps a collection of them. It’s finest after we digest them over time. And it’s even higher after we take into account them within the context of our personal lives. Immediately’s put up will define the Eight Limbs of Yoga.
The sutras are divided into 4 padas (chapters). The second pada is the one which yoga academics and practitioners most frequently seek advice from. It’s because the second pada consists of the Eight Limbs of Yoga. The Eight Limbs present a scaffolding for the entire system of yoga, based on the sutras.
Whereas the sutras listing the limbs in a selected order, they don’t seem to be hierarchical. They’re not like a ladder with eight steps. As a substitute, all of the limbs feed into the entire, form of just like the limbs on a tree. Practising any one of many limbs helps all of the others.
The Eight Limbs of Yoga
Right here’s a brief synopsis of the limbs:
- Yama: Yama means “restraint.” The yamas are moral or ethical precepts for residing peacefully on the earth. They embrace ahimsa (non-harming), satya (truthfulness), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacharya (smart use of sexual power), and aparigraha (non-greed).
- Niyama: The niyamas are private practices that assist us create a wholesome basis for our day by day lives. They embrace saucha (cleanliness), santosha (contentment), tapas (power or dedication to follow), svadhyaya (self-study and examine of inspiring texts) and isvara pranidhana (dedicating our follow to one thing bigger than ourselves).
- Asana: That is the limb we most frequently affiliate with yoga—the bodily postures.
- Pranayama: Pranayama is the follow of controlling and increasing the breath.
- Pratyahara: The most typical description of this limb is “withdrawal from the senses.” I interpret it as a refinement of our relationship with our senses.
- Dharana: Dharana is focus. It’s the amassing of the thoughts onto a single object.
- Dhyana: Dhyana is meditation. It’s the flexibility of thoughts to remain current it doesn’t matter what we’re experiencing by way of our senses.
- Samadhi: Samadhi is the fully settled, expansive thoughts.
That is only a bite-sized description of the framework for yoga follow. Any of the limbs—and even any a part of the limbs, say one of many yamas—might be fodder for years of follow.
In case you’re excited by studying extra, my ebook Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Observe, outlines the Eight Limbs and goes into element about each. There are additionally recommendations for tactics to follow each.
About Charlotte Bell
Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started instructing in 1986. Charlotte is the writer of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Observe and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third ebook is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and people sextet Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards in 2010.
